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Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Strange Flowers/Strange Films 2: The Halloween Edition.




The Halloween season is upon us. Cold winds blow through gold and crimson leaves. The nights grow longer and sunlight is a dim memory. It is the season for horror films. Here are some autumnal delights I obsessively watch every October.



Halloween 3: Season of the Witch - A pretty much perfect blending of creepy television signals and ancient pagan occultism. It stands up with any John Carpenter film, and really, I find it hard to believe it's not a John Carpenter film. It really captures his artistry of dread pitch perfect. I will warn you of one thing. The famous television jingle from this film is contagious and will infect your mind, playing over and over in your head for the rest of your days.




Night of the Living Dead - The most bleak film ever made. A case may be made this is the greatest horror film of all time. It really goes for the throat. It confirms what you don’t want to realize. The worst things will happen. Everything will fall apart into ruin and chaos. Everyone will fail you. Death is everywhere and is in fact coming for you. And there is nothing you can do about it.





Onibaba - A feverish Japanese fable. A tale of scavengers and a demon mask. The film follows the logic of nightmare. Meanings float in and out, nebulous and hazy. One of the scariest films I have ever seen, and I can not give an exact reason why. Maybe the reason could be found in the dark pit contained in the center of this delirious film.




Suspiria - The horror film as hex. From the first scene on, Suspiria traps you into its witch haunted world and never lets up. This is a film that seduces you and brings you willingly into its labyrinthine corridors, where something worse than death awaits. A poisoned apple for those looking to be lead astray into delirium.

2 comments:

  1. Four essential titles Scott. I was away from home during Halloween but if I had to nominate a title to watch on the night it would have been Night of the Living Dead for sure. I did mange to sneak in a screening of Evil Dead, but it was earlier in the week. A poisoned apple for those looking to be lead astray into delirium - I love that...

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